TheCable

BY ARINZE ANAPUGARS

The French people must have had Nigeria’s Revenue Mobilisation Allocation and Fiscal Commission (RMAFC) in mind when they coined the expression “agent provocateur” as far back as 1845. How else does one explain that, at a time when government should be trying to find a way to salve the discontent of Nigerians groaning under extreme hardship, what is important to officials of the commission is a proposal to hike the salaries and allowances of political office holders by 114%?

The proposal, dotty and egregious in every sense, was announced by a commissioner in the agency, Rakiya Tanko-Ayuba, who represented its chairman, Muhammadu Shehu (pictured), at the presentation of reports of the reviewed remuneration package to Kebbi State governor, Dr Nasir Idris, in Birnin Kebbi recently.

He explained that the move was pursuant to the provisions of paragraph 32(d) of part 1 of the Third Schedule of the 1999 constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria (as amended). As if the proposal was not in itself enough insensitivity to rile a suffering nation, the agency is even pushing to pay the increase retrospectively as Tanko-Ayuba said the implementation would become effective from January 1, 2023!

According to him, the commission had objectively and subjectively reviewed the salary packages, and that, in doing so, it “adhered to the rules of equity and fairness, risk and responsibilities, national order of precedence, among others”.

As if on a commission to do a hatchet job for politicians, RMAFC urged Houses of Assembly in the 36 states of the country to “hasten” efforts on amendment of relevant laws to replicate the proposed increases at the state levels. The timing of the proposal, the recommendation to make it take retroactive effect and the effort to corral states to “hasten” the replication leave one wondering if RMAFC officials are serving the country or are only flunkeys for politicians.

Indeed, the commission is right that it is its responsibility to determine the appropriate remuneration for political officeholders including the President, Vice President, Governors, Deputy Governors, Ministers, Commissioners, Special Advisers, Legislators and the holders of such other offices as mentioned in Sections 84 and 124 of the Constitution.

However, it conveniently ignores the preceding paragraph 32 (c) of part 1 of the schedule Tanko-Ayuba referred to. The paragraph lists part of the duties of the commission as “advising the Federal and State Governments on fiscal efficiency and methods by which their revenue can be increased”.

With the huge revenue crisis the country is in now, it will be interesting to hear how far RMAFC has discharged this aspect of its responsibility? What advice has it given government on how the country’s revenue can be increased or how fiscal efficiency can be achieved? Where was the agency when the Buhari government implemented profligate fiscal policies? Why is it prioritizing remuneration of political office holders over these other responsibilities?

Expectedly, the 114% proposal elicited huge backlash from the public. But rather than back down, RMAFC continues to advance woolly arguments to force through its position. Another official, Mr. Hassan Usman, appeared on ARISE TV a few days later to justify the proposal. The commissioner told his audience that “elected officials as well as the populace are all confronted with the same economic situation” and, therefore, deserve the increase.

“The consumer price index is for everybody; private and the public”, Usman argued, adding, for emphasis, that the commission could not “fold its hands and watch until when the sacrificial lamb is dead or killed”. Sacrificial lambs? The same politicians who deploy violence, bribery, rigging, killing and forgery to get into office? How hilarious!

He also claimed that the “salary of Nigeria’s President is one of the lowest when compared with all the other presidents”, adding that “the annual salary of the president falls around N7 million”.

Usman, however, failed to tell his audience that Nigeria’s president and his deputy are perhaps the only elected country leaders in the world who have all their expenses and those of their families paid for by the state. They get everything free – Children’s education, medical expenses, feeding, clothing, newspaper and kola nut supplies, private and official travels for him and his family are all paid for by the public. The N500 per litre fuel is not for them as the large fleet of vehicles for them and their families are all fueled by tax payers. This is the same luxury the governors enjoy at the state level. And it is not even enough for them. Many of the governors got their pliant state assemblies to pass pension laws which entitle them, their deputies and their families to a life of unending luxury even out of office at the expense of their states. The law which was first passed by the Lagos House of Assembly when President Bola Tinubu was about to leave office as governor of the state in 2007 stipulated that a former governor of the state would get 100 per cent of the basic salary of the incumbent governor per annum as life pension, a house each in areas of his choice in Abuja and Lagos, six brand new cars every three years and some domestic staff, 300 per cent of annual basic salary as furniture allowance, free medical care for him and his family for life, security details, among many other entitlements.

Even though the law was amended in 2021 to reduce the benefits by 50 per cent, it has been replicated by over 20 states including Ogun, Abia, Akwa Ibom, Bauchi, Bayelsa, Borno, Delta, Ebonyi, Edo, Kano and Rivers, thus ensuring the governors and their deputies continue to fleece the state for as long as they are alive. They collect these humongous life pensions despite leaving their states in huge debts which recent media reports put at N3.06 trillion.

What they do with billions appropriated for security votes is another matter altogether. We have been regaled with stories of how many of these governors waste public funds on expensive champagnes and whisky and indulge in travelling in chartered aircraft with a retinue of aides who collect millions of naira as travel allowances.

When they finish their tenures, they end up as ministers or senators where they continue to collect salaries and other allowances in the house. The pension benefits of Godswill Akpabio, as former governor of Akwa Ibom, are reported to be over N200 million. Will he still collect this pension now that he is Senate President? We wait to see.

These are the same people RMAFC is labouring to convince us need 114% salary increase because they are faced with the same economic challenges millions of Nigerians are struggling with at the moment!

The commission is yet to tell Nigerians exactly how much the take home pay of legislators is. The speculation is that House of Representatives and senators earn between 25 million and 40 million naira monthly, while the presiding officers earn multiples of that. Former Senator Shehu Sani of Kaduna central admitted some years ago that Senators earned as much as 13.5m naira monthly. Even if that was the case, though many believed he did not make a full disclosure, it still made our legislators the highest paid in the world.

This is in a country where the minimum wage has remained N30,000 per month, where workers, who after serving the country for 35 years, collect pittance as retirement benefits. That is even for the fortunate ones; many die while waiting to be paid. University professors and medical doctors and other health workers who ask for better conditions of service are dismissed as unpatriotic, while our politicians with their god mentality continue to live in conceited opulence.

Government’s reaction to the RMAFC report was even threadbare. The President’s Special Adviser (Special Duties, Communications and Strategy), Dele Alake, said that no such proposal had been brought before President Tinubu. Like is typical of spokesmen of politicians, he described the report as “fake news”, claiming it was “contrived to create ill-wind for the new administration”. He cleverly ignored the fact that it was a senior official of RMAFC who announced the proposal.

Alake’s denial is not enough. In the same spirit of asking the masses to make sacrifices, the Presidency should go a step further by directing that no such proposal should be contemplated at this time. Indeed, it should focus on addressing the huge gap between politicians’ emoluments and those of the real “sacrificial lambs” – doctors, lecturers, teachers, civil servants, policemen and the other toilers of society.

Anapugars, a communications consultant, wrote from Lagos.